Expandable devices such as stents or other expandable frameworks may be implanted in a variety of body lumens or vessels such as within the vascular system, urinary tracts, gastrointestinal tracts, bile ducts, fallopian tubes, coronary vessels, secondary vessels, etc. Some expandable devices are implanted in a portion of the patient's gastrointestinal tract to treat obesity and medical conditions associated with obesity. Estimates of the incidence of morbid obesity are approximately 2% of the U.S. population and 0.5% worldwide. Recent investigations suggest that the causes of obesity involve a complex interplay of genetic, environmental, psycho-behavioral, endocrine, metabolic, cultural, and socioeconomic factors. Medical conditions associated with obesity include coronary artery disease, hypertension, type II diabetes mellitus, gallstones, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, pulmonary hypertension, and sleep apnea.
The art referred to and/or described above is not intended to constitute an admission that any patent, publication or other information referred to herein is “prior art” with respect to this invention. In addition, this section should not be construed to mean that a search has been made or that no other pertinent information as defined in 37 C.F.R. § 1.56(a) exists.
All US patents and applications and all other published documents mentioned anywhere in this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Without limiting the scope of the invention a brief summary of some of the claimed embodiments of the invention is set forth below. Additional details of the summarized embodiments of the invention and/or additional embodiments of the invention may be found in the Detailed Description of the Invention below.